NSA FLURRY CLOSES OUT THE WEEK — As Washington’s busiest stretch for tech policy in weeks draws to a close, here’s where things stand on the debate over whether and how to curb the government’s Internet surveillance powers:

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--TECH GIANTS WANT NSA CHECKS — For months, transparency has been the name of the game for Silicon Valley firms looking for a response to the Edward Snowden leaks. Now, they’re going a step further. Your MT-er has the story: “A coalition of major tech firms called for new, if vague, privacy protections and oversight reforms in a letter Thursday to House and Senate Judiciary sponsors of Congress’s most sweeping surveillance reform bill yet. The letter was sent one day after a new report from The Washington Post alleged that the NSA has infiltrated the communications links between data centers owned by Google and Yahoo...It’s a reflection that tech firms, which found themselves on the defensive after the first leaks from Edward Snowden, are now playing more offense in a climate where major revelations over the NSA’s snooping powers seem to be the norm. An industry source said the proximity of Thursday’s letter to the Post report was coincidental, but Wednesday’s story still prompted a reaction, at least from Google, that entered new territory.” http://politi.co/19grdUt

--FEINSTEIN BILL CLEARS COMMITTEE, DRAWS SKEPTICISM: Ars Technica’s Joe Mullin: “The FISA Improvements Act has already attracted plenty of critics who view it as no improvement at all. In fact, they say, Feinstein's bill would make things much worse. It would actually enshrine the NSA ‘bulk data’ collection programs into law and grant official Congressional approval to widespread surveillance programs that haven't ever received such affirmation before...The bill includes other safeguards and reporting requirements, most of which are already in place, such as limiting the number of contacts or ‘hops’ that an analyst can get when querying bulk communications.” http://bit.ly/1f77CHI

--SPYING HAS GONE ‘TOO FAR’ AT TIMES, KERRY SAYS: “There is no question that the President and I, and others in government, have actually learned of some things that have been happening in many ways on automatic pilot because the technology has been there and the ability has been there over the course of a long period of time,” Secretary of State John Kerry told an audience via video hookup at the Open Government Partnership Summit in London. ”In some cases, I acknowledge to you, as has the President, that some of these actions have reached too far and we are going to make sure that that doesn't happen in the future.” He also defended the NSA’s actions as successful in helping prevent “airplanes from going down” and stopping assassinations. SkyNews has more: http://bit.ly/1f7aFj7

--TECH FIRMS HUSTLE TO ENCRYPT MORE DATA: WSJ’S Danny Yadron and Siobhan Gorman: “In the past, Internet firms have generally viewed data moving between their servers as internal traffic, making it safe from most cyberattacks, said Matthew Prince, chief executive of CloudFlare Inc., a cybersecurity company. But in reality, much of that data still traverses fiber cables run and operated by third-party telecommunications firms. Overseas, the NSA can gain access to those cables through long-standing relationships with foreign intelligence services and these telecommunications firms, former U.S. officials say. The NSA receives copies of the data traveling over the cables, one former U.S. official said.” http://on.wsj.com/1f7b4Sw

GOOD FRIDAY MORNING and welcome to Morning Tech, where, hey, it’s our birthday. Give us that present we’ve always dreamed of — your juiciest tech tip or scooplet — over at abyers@politico.com and @byersalex. And catch the rest of the team’s contact info after speed read.

SENATE REPUBLICANS REBUFF WATT NOMINATION — Rep. Mel Watt’s nomination to lead the Federal Housing Finance Authority fell short of a 60-vote threshold Thursday, leaving the White House back at the drawing board in terms of trying to convince Senate GOP-ers to bless their pick. But there’s no word when or how the administration and Senate allies might try to reboot Watt’s nomination — and that means the House’s intellectual property subcommittee, on which Watt is the lead Democrat, is likely to keep its ranking member for the time being.

That means the North Carolina congressman, known as a staunch intellectual property enforcer, is likely to be around for debates over Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte’s patent reform bill, as well as the panel’s comprehensive copyright review and potential work on music royalty rules. Even if he doesn’t get confirmed, though, Watt’s not a sure thing to come back in the 114th Congress, given that he hasn’t been raising money for reelection — at least as of the end of the third quarter. Several months ago, we reported that Rep. Jerry Nadler would likely take the ranking spot on the IP panel if Watt were to depart.

SENATE COMMERCE GETS IN ON PATENT DEBATE — Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s panel has slated a hearing for next Thursday on patent trolls, marking just the latest effort by Hill lawmakers to re-engage on an issue it legislated just two years ago. The meeting will focus specifically on the deluge of demand letters sent by some patent holders — an issue that some reform advocates had hoped lawmakers would specifically address in the wake of Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s reform bill.

--BY THE WAY: Sen. Cory Booker is joining the Commerce panel. If you want to wish him him well, we hear he’s on Twitter.

CHERTOFF: PRIVACY DEBATE SHOULD BE A CULTURAL ONE — The former Secretary of Homeland Security in this morning’s WaPo: “The ubiquitousness of recording devices ­— coupled with the ability everyone has to broadcast indiscriminately through Twitter, YouTube and other online platforms — means that virtually every act or utterance outside one’s own home ... is subject to being massively publicized. ... The relevant question here is: Are we creating an informant society, in which every overheard conversation, cellphone photograph or other record of personal behavior is transmitted not to police but to the world at large? Do we want to chill behavior and speech with the fear that an unpopular comment or embarrassing slip will call forth vituperative criticism and perhaps even adversely affect careers or reputations? Do we need to constantly monitor what we say or do in restaurants, at sporting events, on public sidewalks or even private parties?” http://wapo.st/HspkKe

DATA ACT COULD BE TEED UP FOR NEXT WEEK — The Senate’s HSGAC panel is tentatively looking at marking up a bill to establish standards for reporting federal spending data, which cleared a House committee in May but hasn’t gotten attention in the Senate yet. The measure is on an agenda for Wednesday’s committee meeting (as is the Federal Data Center Consolidation Act of 2013), but a panel aide told us that the slate wasn’t yet finalized.

If it does come up, though, be on the lookout for a manager’s amendment. Committee leaders are weighing a substitute version of the bill, Data Transparency Coalition Executive Director Hudson Hollister told MT, that would cut from the bill any mention of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. The panel aide didn’t comment on that possibility.

TODAY: FTC’S OHLHAUSEN GOES THE WAY OF AMA — Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen is taking your questions this afternoon in what’s being billed as the agency’s first Reddit “ask me anything” chat. Privacy will be the top topic — the GOP official recently met with Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg during the government shutdown. Find her AMA here at 4 p.m.: http://bit.ly/19gqPoT

SPEED READ

TWITTER WORKING ON ENCRYPTED DIRECT MESSAGES: It's just one more Silicon Valley reaction to the NSA's snooping activities, The New York Times reports: http://nyti.ms/Hsq2Hg

Authors:

About The Author

Alex Byers is a technology reporter for POLITICO Pro. He was previously a senior Web producer at POLITICO, where he helped run POLITICO's Twitter and Facebook accounts. Before joining the Web team, he graduated from The George Washington University, where he served as the 2009-10 editor-in-chief of The GW Hatchet, the school's award-winning student newspaper.

Previously, he has interned at washingtonpost.com, Dateline NBC and General Mills Inc. He hails from Minneapolis and is an avid Twins fan, musician and golfer.